Opinion
Kansan
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Jodie Chester, Editor Marc Harrell, Business manager Gerry Doyle, Managing editor Jamie Holman, Retail sales manager Ryan Koerner, Managing editor Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
4A
Thursday, December 3, 1998
MEANWHILE, FAR FROM THE TOBACCO SETTLEMENT...
Editorials
Skaters should not jump the gun by using park before completion
Area skateboarders have waited years to have a skate park of their own in Lawrence. It is not too much to ask them to wait another week for the park's extra construction to be finished.
The skate park, located on a set of old tennis courts in Centennial Park, has been skater-ready for more than a week, and park-hungry skaters have been using. Unfortunately, the park is not officially open yet because several extra features to the park have not been finished. As a result, most skaters using the area have asked to leave by Lawrence police.
That is because the park is not open. Dewayne Peterson, project manager of the park's construction, said although the skating components of the park were finished, there still was construction being done to other features.
The skate park, located in Centennial Park, is scheduled to be finished by Dec. 14.
The largest feature that has not been completed is the fence that will surround the park. Peterson said that the amount of rocks in the ground, and the time it was taking to remove them, was slowing the fence's construction.
"We're hoping we'll be done this week, or early next week," Peterson said. The contract that the city of Lawrence sold to Penny Construction Co. to build the park gives it a completion date of Dec. 14, he said.
Other amenities to the park will include a pay phone and a water fountain. These additions have not been completed either. Peterson said that allowing skaters to use the park while construction was ongoing would affect the contractor's liability and also could cause damage to features that have not been finished.
"We're asking that the interested users refrain from using the park until it is open." Peterson said.
Peterson's argument may be hard for local skaters to swallow, but it should be respected. Crucial to the success of the skate park is the bridging of the gap between skaters and local authorities. After years of using a skate park built by the skaters themselves, local skaters should be patient and wait for the city's park to be finished.
Ronnie Wachter for the editorial board
Teen survey had disturbing results
On Nov.12, "Who's Who Among American High School Students" released its 29th annual survey of the attitudes and opinions of some of the nation's highest achievers. What it found was disturbing.
Eighty percent of the respondents admitted to cheating in order to get ahead and stay ahead academically. Fifty-three percent said that cheating was no big deal, and 95 percent of those who did cheat were never caught.
Of the students surveyed, 15 percent said that they were biased against Blacks and Hispanics, an increase from 7 percent last year. The survey also showed that 48
Some of the country's highest achievers admitted to cheating and being prejudiced.
percent reported being prejudiced against gays and lesbians, up from 29 percent last year.
These numbers are startling, to be sure. But what is often overlooked in its wake is that such surveys are even conducted at all.
Thirty years ago, few people would have been offended or even surprised to hear sexism, racism and homophobia coming from the mouths of the best and
the brightest.
If our society is to combat these trends, the surveys must continue. Results must be analyzed. Researchers need to follow up with the students they survey.
These are the students who will be attending our universities. We need to know how not to turn out generations of fearful, hate-filled people.
Old fears and prejudices die hard, as this survey shows. American society has grown considerably since the bad-old days of legalized discrimination, but we have much further to go.
Jennifer Roush for the editorial board
Kansan staff
Ann Premer ... Editorial
Tim Harrington ... Associate Editorial
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This semester members of Students for a Free Tibet had the good fortune to spend an afternoon with a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He was one of nine monks
All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Staufer-Filr Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Ann Prere (apremer@kansan.com) or Tim Harrington (tharrington@kansan.com) at 846-4810. If you have general questions or comments, email the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Tibetan monk inspires actions for human rights
Perspective
who had traveled to the United States from India on a fund-raising trip for their overpopulated monastery.
Jennifer Mays
Guest Columnist
Erik Goodman
Guest Columnist
These monks, like thousands of other Tibetans, fled to India after their nation was invaded by China's Peoples Liberation Army in 1959. According to human rights watch-groups such as New York's Freedom House, 1.2 million Tibetans have died as a result of the invasion. There also have been gross repressions of religious freedom, torture and false imprisonment, forced abortion and sterilization of Tibetan women and the destruction of more than 6,000 monasteries. To make Tibet more Chinese, the Chinese government has given benefits to Chinese citizens who relocate to Tibet. The Chinese government has every intention of wiping out Tibetan culture from Tibe
This contented state of mind also influenced his views on Tibetan relations with China. He, like the Dalai Lama, was adamant that he was not angry with China. In fact, he hoped that someday he could share his culture with China. He felt that there were numerous Chinese citizens who would like to be involved with Tibetan spirituality. As he put it, "We can share."
His kind and authentic demeanor made him immediately approachable.
When we asked him what Tibet had to offer the United States, his initial response was that Tibet had nothing material to offer. What he said Tibet could offer was the spiritual knowledge and attitudes of Buddhism. Indeed, as Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys has said, "While the Western world has been advancing technologically...Tibetans.have been making advancements within their minds — advancements that can actually make a person know how to be happier."
Tibetan culture from this time.
As devastating as this situation has been for the Tibetan people, they have been incredible resilient. Since the invasion, the religious and temporal leader of the Tibetan government in exile, the Dalai Lama has never wavered from a stance of nonviolence.
The Dalai Lama, other Tibetan leaders and groups like ours routinely ask people to be pro-Tibet, not anti-China. Earlier this year, the Dalai Lama intervened when several Tibetans went on a hunger strike to protest China's occupation. He stated that this was a form of violence against the self and therefore, was unacceptable.
Unfortunately, the monk said that he was worried that many Tibetans would lose their spirituality if they did not regain their country soon. Just as many Americans no longer feel a connection to the cultures of their ancestors, he was worried that this would happen among Tibetans. Though he is in his mid-30s, much of his generation, including himself, was not born in Tibet. He feared that the next generation would begin to lose the sense of being "Tibetan."
What was striking to us was his obvious sense of internal peace.
This plea was the topic of our talk with the Dibetan monk. Because our group formed to help his people, we welcomed the opportunity.
He felt strongly that the United States could help resolve this situation. By pushing for negotiations between the Dalai Lama and Chinese leadership, he said, the United States could dramatically advance the cause of Tibetan rights. Though simple negotiations may seem a small step to observers of Western politics, President Clinton recently would not officially meet the Dalai Lama for fear of angering China.
iNET has tried to educate the world about its suffering. The Dalai Lama, who won the 1989 Noble Peace Prize, travels the world speaking about Tibet. Hundreds of other Tibetans do the same. They want no punishment for China and are willing to give up the idea of national independence. What they will not give up, however, is their plea for human rights and religious freedom.
Our visit was both informative and genuinely inspiring. It was remarkable to meet someone whose people lived in such a dangerous political climate and yet had maintained a sense of internal peace and resolve. It also brought home the urgent need for the United States and the world to help Tibet.
Goodman is a Beavercreek, Ohio, junior in politics science. Mays is an Overland Park junior in anthropology. Both are members of Students for a Free Tibet.
Columnist passes class by not breaking but entering
me.
I am not proud that I found myself breaking into Wescole at 1:30 in the morning, but I felt as though no jury could possibly convict
It didn't matter that by then I was so sleep deprived that I would have seemed about as coherent as F. Scott Fitzgerald on a wine-tasting tour. Assuming you could find 12 college students that didn't dodge jury duty, they would have seen my actions as totally rational. I was suffering from a very common ailment.
I was suffering from paper-related dementia. We've all gone through it.
Nick
Bartkoski
ooinii@ kansan.com
We've all gone through it. You have one or two major
projects due during the course of a couple of days.
You're a typical college student (read procrastinator), so you haven't done a lot of work on these projects ahead of time so you're burning the midnight oil.
Next thing you know, you're barely mumbling through complete sentences and misquoting Keats to explain why you need to be excused so you can use the bathroom (As Keats said in To Autumn "Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find / Thee sitting careless on a granary floor." Obviously by that he means that I really need to catch a ride on the porcelain express.)
My own private dementia came on a soft wistful day, Nov. 20. It was kind of like having a car crash at about 5 miles an hour. You can obviously see it coming, and probably prevent it, but if you do nothing, you'll end up in a really pathetic looking wreck. I had two pretty big projects due that day. My Western Civilization final project due at 10:30 a.m. and a 15-page English paper due at 5:00 p.m.
Wasn't a problem. These were projects I was told about on the first day of class; projects I was reminded about four or five weeks before they were due; projects that could have been taken care of at any time before the due date. According to my mother's take on scheduling, both should have been finished Wednesday the 18th, so I could then proofread and complete without any problems.
Because I've never listened to my mother, I got started on my Western Civilization project at about 9 p.m. Thursday. Because my GTA might be reading this I'm afraid to admit these things, but I came up with a pretty cheap final project. I essentially wrote four columns about the works
As I slowly got closer and closer to my deadline, I realized that I wasn't going to make it. I was going to be really close, but I was going to be late. I did the only thing I could do. I called my professor to explain my problem and beg for mercy. He did a wonderful thing. He told me that as long as it was under his door by Saturday morning, I'd be OK. With this act of leniency, I went on to do the only logical thing
— I started getting my hall ready for the party we were throwing.
credit for being smart.
Somehow or another I completed my project.
Unfortunately, I suddenly began to realize that pumping that much Mountain Dew into my system was not without consequences. It was kind of reassuring to know that I hadn't deadened my sensitivity to caffeine. However, I wasn't showing off my best front as I proceeded to ramble, have rapid shifts in my conversation topics and generally be jittery — and then there were all of the effects the caffein had on my system.
we had read in Western Civilization this semester. I can only hope that my GTA gives extra credit for being snide.
In my defense, it was five p.m. Friday evening,
I hadn't slept since about 11 a.m. Thursday, and
I was still feeling the caffeine buzz. My paper
could get written afterward, and it did. I finished
it about midnight.
So, after my morning class, I began writing my English paper. I had some of it done, one or two pages, but the lions share of work had to get between noon and 5 p.m.
I found out a little earlier that Wesco officially closed at 10 p.m. Now at 1:30 a.m., all I needed was to get in, slide my paper under the door and get out. Sure I wasn't doing anything illegal, but I considered it an official gray area.
A friend and I walked to Wescoe and looked for an open door. I already had said that I wasn't going to force my way in. Fortunately, I had the luxury of finding an open door, so it was a nonissue. But I wonder what would have happened if, after coming so close to accomplishing my goals, after consuming about four gallons of Mountain Dew, after checking every single door at Wescoe and not finding one opened, whether I would have been tempted to open a door by any means possible.
In my state of mind, I probably would have tried. And I think I would have been fine. After all, as Shakespeare once said, "A man full of Mountain Dew / Will do what ne is wont to do" causing me to think that he was probably up a little late to finish A Midsummer Night's Dream for his Western Civilization project.
Bartkoski is a Basehor senior in journalism"
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